The invention relates to a loading device for an apparatus for recording and/or reproducing signals on/from a record carrier. The record carrier can be moved into and out of the housing of the apparatus through an opening in a wall of the housing, by means of a movable drawer. Guide means guide the movement of the drawer relative to the housing, which guide means comprise guide elements guided in guide-ways and guide the drawer parallel to guiding directions which enclose an angle with one another. Drive means the comprising gear racks, gear meshing with the racks and drive shafts, move the drawer. The driver means include drive elements which for moving the drawer exert on the drawer a force comprising components parallel to the guiding directions.
A loading device of this type is known from GB-A No. 2,112,994. Such a loading device is known for use with disc-record players and magnetic-tape apparatuses. In this loading device the record carrier is moved over some distance in a horizontal direction and subsequently in a vertical direction by means of the drawer to allow the record carrier, such as a disc, to cooperate with a recording and/or reproducing element of the apparatus for the purpose of recording or reproduction. In this known loading device the drive elements of the drive means provide the advantage that during driving a force is exerted which during the loading movement is directed at an angle to the horizontal and the vertical. In the known loading device these drive elements comprise plates with inclined grooves and gear racks, the choice of the inclination of the grooves enabling the velocity of the drawer movement and the force exerted on the drawer during the drawing movement to be varied independently of one another. This enables for example the horizontal movement to be performed with a comparatively high speed and the vertical movement with a lower speed, which implies that the force exerted during the vertical movement is greater than during the horizontal movement. This may have the advantage that during one of the movements, in the present case the vertical movement, another mechanism can be actuated without requiring the use of a more powerful drive motor or without adversely affecting the speed of the other movement. This other mechanism may be a disc-pressure means of a disc-record player, which pressure means is actuated during the vertical part of the movement and presses the disc against the turntable after loading.
In principle, the horizontal length of the L-shaped guideway in the known loading device cannot be longer than the longitudinal dimension of the horizontal projection of the inclined groove in the drive element. The same applies to the vertical dimension of the guideway, which in principle cannot be larger than the longitudinal dimension of the vertical projection of the inclined groove. As a result of this, the length of the inclined groove in the drive element determines the maximum travel of the drawer in the horizontal and the vertical direction. Moreover, in the known loading device a small vertical movement of the drawer in principle cannot be combined with a large horizontal movement, because such an inclination of the inclined groove gives rise to a self-braking effect. Further, in the known apparatus the depth of the housing must be comparatively large relative to the depth of the drawer. This is necessary because the drive element must always perform a horizontal movement in order to make the vertical movement.